ECCE HOMOA sound theatre piece co-created with Allen, interweaving Biblical and Kafkaesque texts
Overview
This is a revisit of an earlier piece of Allen's, also called Ecce Homo: two performers, two modular systems, a Behringer 2600 and a Soma Lyra-8. The performance has no fixed duration; the structure is a sequence of agreed sound states, and the rest is semi-improvised.
Motivation Allen showed me some footage from the first performance, and some texts. At the time I was playing with an A-198 and a Planar and working on granular; while trying things out I found sounds he liked. The piece came together through that trial-and-fix process: not a plan first and then an implementation, but sounds first, and then a decision about what they were.
Where it comes from The title and the opening come from John 19:5: Pilate brings out Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and says to the crowd, "Ecce homo" — behold the man. The second text is the passage in Kafka's In der Strafkolonie (In the Penal Colony) where the officer bends down to look at the dead man's face. Both texts are part of the performance: they are spoken aloud and also sampled, and they are the work's only explanatory content.
The Roman governor Pontius Pilate pointed to Jesus — wearing the crown of thorns, draped in a purple robe, his hands bound — and called out to the people of Jerusalem: "Ecce homo." Since then, interpretations and anecdotes surrounding depictions of the crowned Christ have never ceased; what shifts endlessly are the perspectives and figures, while what remains is the myriad faces of human good and evil.
Exiit ergo Iesus foras, portans spineam coronam et purpureum vestimentum. Et dicit eis: "Ecce homo!". — Ioannes 19:5, Nova Vulgata
Es war, wie es im Leben gewesen war; kein Zeichen der versprochenen Erlösung war zu entdecken; was alle anderen in der Maschine gefunden hatten, der Offizier fand es nicht; die Lippen waren fest zusammengedrückt, die Augen waren offen, hatten den Ausdruck des Lebens, der Blick war ruhig und überzeugt, durch die Stirn ging die Spitze des grossen eisernen Stachels. — Franz Kafka, In der Strafkolonie (Kurt Wolff, Leipzig 1919)
How it works The electronics centre on Clouds and Stages. I modulate Clouds with Stages in the manner of an address sequencer, so that it sits between a sampler and a typical granular sound and can morph between the two. We fixed a number of states that suited this system and wrote them down as stage cues — "the bass comes in", "the butterfly's wings, three times", "the voice comes in"… It serves as our score, except that it does not specify pitch, only mood.
My contribution Electronics and system: me. Texts, footage and structure: Allen and me. Performed by both of us.
Where it has been shown The 「声东击西」 showcase at the Shanghai Conservatory (2025.01.05); the 浣熊唱片 new-shop opening. The production still on this page is from the former, in the academic hall. The recording was made after the performance, to get a clean recording.
Motivation Allen showed me some footage from the first performance, and some texts. At the time I was playing with an A-198 and a Planar and working on granular; while trying things out I found sounds he liked. The piece came together through that trial-and-fix process: not a plan first and then an implementation, but sounds first, and then a decision about what they were.
Where it comes from The title and the opening come from John 19:5: Pilate brings out Jesus wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe and says to the crowd, "Ecce homo" — behold the man. The second text is the passage in Kafka's In der Strafkolonie (In the Penal Colony) where the officer bends down to look at the dead man's face. Both texts are part of the performance: they are spoken aloud and also sampled, and they are the work's only explanatory content.
The Roman governor Pontius Pilate pointed to Jesus — wearing the crown of thorns, draped in a purple robe, his hands bound — and called out to the people of Jerusalem: "Ecce homo." Since then, interpretations and anecdotes surrounding depictions of the crowned Christ have never ceased; what shifts endlessly are the perspectives and figures, while what remains is the myriad faces of human good and evil.
Exiit ergo Iesus foras, portans spineam coronam et purpureum vestimentum. Et dicit eis: "Ecce homo!". — Ioannes 19:5, Nova Vulgata
Es war, wie es im Leben gewesen war; kein Zeichen der versprochenen Erlösung war zu entdecken; was alle anderen in der Maschine gefunden hatten, der Offizier fand es nicht; die Lippen waren fest zusammengedrückt, die Augen waren offen, hatten den Ausdruck des Lebens, der Blick war ruhig und überzeugt, durch die Stirn ging die Spitze des grossen eisernen Stachels. — Franz Kafka, In der Strafkolonie (Kurt Wolff, Leipzig 1919)
How it works The electronics centre on Clouds and Stages. I modulate Clouds with Stages in the manner of an address sequencer, so that it sits between a sampler and a typical granular sound and can morph between the two. We fixed a number of states that suited this system and wrote them down as stage cues — "the bass comes in", "the butterfly's wings, three times", "the voice comes in"… It serves as our score, except that it does not specify pitch, only mood.
My contribution Electronics and system: me. Texts, footage and structure: Allen and me. Performed by both of us.
Where it has been shown The 「声东击西」 showcase at the Shanghai Conservatory (2025.01.05); the 浣熊唱片 new-shop opening. The production still on this page is from the former, in the academic hall. The recording was made after the performance, to get a clean recording.